With its long immigration history, Canada has a strong tradition of tolerance reflected in its ethnic diversity and cultural background. However, in these times of economic crisis, it's easy to find anti-immigrant sentiments. It's true that some Canadians think that immigrants hinder the country, but the majority of us support immigration and consider that introducing some changes to the government's policy should make immigrants a better asset to the country.

Despite a growing anti-immigrant attitude, the majority of Canadians still support immigration. Canada is facing a looming labor shortage, and this is one of the main reasons why we need immigrants. According to a recent study, a million jobs would go unfilled across the country by the year 2021 because of lack of skilled workers. The shortage in skilled labor could be as high as 1.8 million according to the ministry of finance. Since most immigrants arrive here when they are aged between 25 and 40 years old, immigration is also a solution for our future demographic crunch. According to the Institute for Research on Public Policy, there will be only two workers for every senior citizen in Canada in 2036, compared to 6.6 in 1971 and 4.2 in 2012. Rather than hindering Canada, multiculturalism is also a valuable resource that has long characterized the country. The different immigration sources are reflected in the richness of our identity as each ethnicity brings its own contribution to the common social and cultural image of the country.

Even if the Country's immigration policy has been mainly positive, we should  change some of its aspects to make it more effective. It's unwise to stop immigration completely, but the government should probably consider adjusting the intakes of immigrants in times of economic hardships to respond to the mounting pressure against immigration.  To make the settlement experience less challenging, we need to adopt new ideas for mentoring new-comers. To this end, we definitely need to hear both from immigrants and community workers. More immigrants should also head west instead of flocking to Ontario and Quebec.

We should respond to anti-immigration attitudes because they generate a bias towards ethnic minorities and endanger our social stability. Stirring up discriminatory behaviors, hostile attitudes of this kind do not affect only new immigrants but extend to minorities who actually may be citizens and even born in the country.

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